


Special Menu Items

by grassangel



Series: Five sentence fic and other short formats [14]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Puzzle Quest (Video Game), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Diners, Alternate Universe - Human, Cheeseburgers, Crack Treated Seriously, F/F, F/M, Fast Food, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Foster Parents, Gen, Ice Cream, Inspired by Fanfiction, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:01:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26541841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grassangel/pseuds/grassangel
Summary: a ficlet inspired by MPQ's Gwen Prix node "Board Shake with Fries"orWelcome to the Shield & Calvary Diner, where Daisy doesn't mind the teenage customers - it's the dads that are trouble.
Relationships: Brunnhilde | Valkyrie (Marvel)/Gamora, Nebula & Tony Stark, Skye | Daisy Johnson/Robbie Reyes
Series: Five sentence fic and other short formats [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/662477
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Special Menu Items

**Author's Note:**

> Marvel Puzzle Quest has in the past run an event called 'Gwen Prix', a five-day event where you are offered the choice between two nodes every day. And, the devs being the nerds they are, the nodes are presented as fanfics - teams of two or three opponents with a fic-like summary explaining the combo. Since they are completely open to fic, (there is verbal record of this being said on a podcast!) I've decided, perhaps unwisely, to either track down fic which fits, or write a ficlet myself.
> 
> The second day offered a choice between _'It's A Trap'_ , where Jessica Jones and Felicia Hardy ambush Spider-Man or _'Board Shake With Fries'_ , where Thanos and the Hulk place an order at Daisy Johnson's diner. Unsurprisingly, there is no fic close enough to the latter, so unfortunately I have to write it.

Teenagers are nice. Daisy likes them. They're usually polite and try not to make too much noise and always say 'please' and 'thank you' and don't complain when their orders take fifteen minutes rather than ten.

The kids Daisy's just taken the orders of are no different. The only boy at the table had ordered a cheeseburger and an extra large Mountain Dew, the girl next to him in the beanie had gotten a 'healthy' option (the chicken cheese melt wasn't that healthy, but it did have salad and the pita was whole wheat), while the two girls still in their softball uniforms had distractedly ordered nachos to share, otherwise engrossed in something on the phone of the girl who had magenta-tipped hair. Simple, easy, regular menu items with no alterations. 

The problem is the dads. They're sitting the required two tables away so they don't look like they're chaperoning their kids and desperately trying to look like they don't know each other - spaced as far apart from one another as they possibly can on the dinky little four-top they're seated at. Which is a little difficult given they're both big guys, their shoulders broad enough that Daisy's thankful that Tuesday afternoons are dead and she doesn't have to squeeze past them with drinks for the eight-top. The one with the salt and pepper curls doesn't look like he'll be too much trouble, but the bald one? The one whose biceps are bursting out of that short sleeve shirt who looks like he could take on Mack and win? The one with a face like a pit-bull that would totally scare away customers if they'd chosen the table closer to the window that was on the other side of their kids? The one with a huge fuck-ass expensive looking watch, a bunch of rings that looked like they double as knuckle dusters and a goddamn presentation folder? Yeah, that one looked like trouble. 

"Shield and Cavalry Diner, what can I get you today?" Daisy asks, a smile plastered on her face that she hopes doesn't look too much like a grimace. 

Bald dad is the one who answers first, looking up from his papers. (Are those blueprints? Why are there giant dots all over them? Why are some of those dots labelled 'TNT'?) 

"I'll have a perfectly balanced sundae," he replies, barely giving Daisy a glance before returning his attention to his folder, gesturing to the other dad with his pen. "He'll have the–" 

"I want the legendary bored shake." Salt and pepper interrupts, looking up from his phone and oh crap, Daisy really regrets making that stupid blog post with the secret menu. In her defence, that had been before May and Phil had retired to Tahiti, leaving her to run the diner. If she had known how much trouble the 'unofficial' menu items she'd made up would be, she would have never made that post.  
"And one for the girls too," he grunts after a moment, nodding towards the table with the kids before turning his attention back to his phone.

"That's a four-scoop sundae - two vanilla, two chocolate with marshmallow and chocolate sauce with raspberries and peanuts-" Daisy gets a distracted hand wave from bald dad as she dutifully recites their orders back, "-and two deluxe tutti-frutti milkshakes with a scoop of blueberry sherbet, strawberry and pineapple sauce, pistachios and our special purple ube wafer cookies. Do you want one straw or two?" Daisy directs the question to salt and pepper dad.

"One," he grunts, pointing at himself before grinning, teeth white against his olive skin, and pointing at the girls who've now progressed to hand holding. "Two." 

That makes bald dad look up and over to the kids, and whatever he sees he must not like, as he frowns and sets down the folder.

"Gamora! Nebula!" he barks at them, causing the one with the pink-tipped hair to drop the hand of the other girl and the girl who had been wearing the beanie to startle. "Behave. You're in public."

There's a chorus of 'yes sir's from the two girls that Daisy is certain would've been muttered if they hadn't been subject to bald dad's stern gaze. Beanie removes the earbud she'd been sharing with the boy and jams her hat back on, her blue undercut sticking out awkwardly from underneath it, and pink-tips shuffles her chair away from the other girl's with a loud scrape. Daisy can't make out the reaction of the other girl, but she can see the death glare the boy is sending bald dad from over the top of his laptop and she definitely feel her own smile slipping into a grimace. She's all too familiar with the iron-fisted rule some foster parents took with the children under their care and their high –impossible– standards of expected behaviour from dumb teenagers. 

The fake smile a lost cause Daisy attempts to finish taking the dads' order as quickly as possible.

"Anything else? Coffee? Soda? Fries? From 4 o'clock onwards a basket is only–" 

"Nothing else." Daisy gets cut off by bald dad, his glare growing more short tempered the more she tries to push their special. She makes one last attempt at a smile.

"I'll be back with your orders in a few minutes. Sir. Sir," Daisy gives them each a nod, getting a grunt of approval from bald dad, and tries not to scurry away too quickly to the sanctity of the kitchen.

Mack is still waiting on the cheese to melt on the nachos and the burger and Daisy is scooping the sherbet and ice cream in to their respective glasses when Robbie's motorcycle pulls up, the bell over the diner door tinkling shortly after to indicate he's come in.

"Hi," she smiles at him as Robbie sits at the counter, "can you wait while I finish with these orders?"

Her boyfriend gives a nod and idly flips through one of the folded menus on the counter as Daisy finishes constructing the sundae and shakes, a second straw and an extra cookie placed on the one for the two girls. Twisting on the stool, Robbie gives her another smile as Daisy comes out of the kitchen, the two trays for the two tables perfectly balanced along her left arm.

She serves the teenagers first, conscious of the way their parents are observing her. The boy loudly proclaims praise for his cheeseburger, while the two girls who have bald dad as their parent quietly, but still audibly, thank Daisy as she sets their orders down. The last girl, zinc sunscreen still smeared under her eyes, turns around in her seat when the legendary bored shake is placed in front of her and waves to her dad.

"Thanks Bruce!" she calls across the short space between the two tables with a grin before taking an enthusiastic bite out of a wafer cookie pulled from the large glass. Magenta hair —Gamora Daisy assumes by the way beanie has spelled 'Nebula' with stickers across her laptop— also turns around and says thank you before her claiming her own ube cookie from the shake.

Serving the sundae and shake to the two dads, Daisy barely gets an acknowledgment from bald dad, his attention instead focused on the kids behind her, but salt and pepper, Bruce, gives her a smile before he takes the spoon on the side of the shake and stirs the scoop of sherbet into it. Relieved, but trying not to show it, Daisy retreats the counter and her boyfriend.

"Your regular?" she asks, reaching for the extra large iced coffee glasses. 

"Yeah," Robbie replies, distracted. He's looking over his shoulder at the parents she's just served but turns to face her properly once he hears the sound of whipped cream being applied to another unofficial menu item. Rainbow coverage wasn't the most interesting item Daisy created for her infamous list, but the simplicity of sprinkles and whipped cream is certainly her favourite now she's the one running the diner.

"Tough crowd this afternoon." Robbie inclines his head towards the dads once he's taken a sip of his coffee.

Daisy nods slightly and turns briefly to give Mack a coffee of his own in return for a basket of fries which she steals one from before placing it front of Robbie.

"Teenagers are fine but their chaperones? Ugh." Her grimace is enough to make her boyfriend offer her his fry that he's swiped through the whipped cream on his coffee.

"Thanos Alarsson will be one of the hardest ones. He's one of my cases," Robbie explains, speaking more into the chips than at her so his voice doesn't carry. "He's very strict with his kids, enough to make them attempt to run away a couple of times, but the judge likes him and doesn't think one of the richest men in the county could abuse kids badly enough that their attempts are anything but teenage rebellion."

Over her boyfriend's shoulder Daisy can see that Bruce has finished the shake and is nibbling at the wafer – Daisy could probably upsell him a basket of fries when she collects the glass from their table – but the sundae belonging to bald dad, Mr Alarsson, is mostly melted and half eaten. That he's ordered an off-menu item and hasn't finished it adds extra weight to her boyfriend's words.

"Which is why," Robbie smiles at her, and Daisy turns her attention back to him, a whipped cream moustache just below his real one which she can't help but smiling back at, "I encouraged Gamora and Nebula to make friends with Dr Banner's kids, Tony and Val. He's good with kids, though as a professor he can't provide for them as well as he would like. But it means Gamora and Nebula have a good excuse to go to his place when they need somewhere safe."

Glancing over to the table closer to the counter, the kids have almost finished with their food – Gamora and Val are still picking at their nachos and Tony still has half of his soda to go, but she'll have to pick up their plates in a minute.

Robbie continues, offering her another chip, "Plus Bruce is a good example of what a foster parent should be, which is why Mr Alarsson is viciously determined to stare me to death."

Recalling the way he'd been glaring past her when she'd served him, Daisy gives Robbie's hand a squeeze. 

"Or," she says slowly, catching the death glare of the man they'd been talking about over her boyfriend's shoulder, "he wants the bill."

Giving her a sympathetic smile, Robbie gives her hand one last squeeze before letting her ring the orders up and go to clear the tables.

The kids have neatly piled up their plates, though Tony retains his soda glass, and they're pulling out their wallets as soon as she's placed their receipt down.

"I'll come back in a moment for it," she promises them before moving on to their parents as they start piling notes and coins in the middle of the table.

Bald dad, Mr Alarsson, is waiting with a ten-dollar bill as Daisy winds her way to their table. It's not much of a tip on top of the cost of the sundae, but based on Robbie's resounding recommendation of his character she's glad to even get one and that he's not counting out nickles and dimes for exact change. Dr Banner on the other hand is smiling as she collects his glass and, without prompting from her, orders that basket of fries as well. 

"Bring it out to that table," he requests as he hands over a twenty, indicating the table the kids are sat at. "I'll be joining my kids shortly as I believe my friend and his girls have somewhere to be." Dr Banner grunts 'friend' in a manner that indicates he dislikes him as much as Robbie does, and Daisy gives him a genuine smile as she confirms that for him. 

He's helping Nebula with her laptop by the time Daisy returns to pick up the bill from the teenagers and drop off the basket of fries. Mr Alarsson is waiting impatiently as Gamora and Val say their goodbyes, arms crossed and folder in hand. Daisy nods at the two groups as Nebula finally finishes packing up her bag, her smile mostly for the kids and Dr Banner.

"I hope you enjoyed your food today. Please come again to the Shield and Calvary Diner!" she says in parting, though bald dad is already heading to the door where both another group of teenagers is coming through and Yo-yo is arriving for her dinner shift. At the counter, Robbie is smiling and shaking his head at her as Daisy picks up her pad to take the order of the next table of teenagers.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are, as ever, welcome. You can also ask questions or squee at me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/grassangel), [tumblr](https://grassangel.tumblr.com/) and [dreamwidth](https://grassangel.dreamwidth.org/).


End file.
